


im nayeon's three steps on how to get THE girl

by ddeulgi



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Idiots in Love, but now it does!!!, minayeon fluff???? lmfao that shit dont exist, some split second jeongsa, ♡
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22935514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddeulgi/pseuds/ddeulgi
Summary: Step 1: My god, Nayeon, stop trying to revolve your whole life around her.Step 2: Become her friend! Get to know her!Step 3: Play it cool, Im Nayeon. Play. It. Cool.
Relationships: Im Nayeon/Myoui Mina
Comments: 44
Kudos: 720





	im nayeon's three steps on how to get THE girl

**Author's Note:**

> this entire fic was based off of PUBLIC's make you mine... i recommend you listen to the song on repeat when u read this :)  
> bc i wrote + edited this entire thing with the song on repeat... FOR HOURS.... AND HOOOOOURS lol please suffer with me <3
> 
> hope you enjoy reading!

It starts in Seoul, South Korea, in the spring of 2018. Or, more commonly known as the year where Im Nayeon’s life went straight to hell. (In a good way. _Promise!_ )

Im Nayeon, a then eighteen-year-old senior with a penchant for babbling about anything and everything and _not_ watching where she’s going, runs right into Myoui Mina, a same-aged Japanese transfer student two classrooms down from hers, known for her blindingly attractive outward appearance parallel to that of a pink-faced cherub and well, er— her supposed personality of a two-ton marshmallow. Whatever that means.

It comes after an entire morning of almost drooling all over her desk, dozing right through two of her supplemental lessons, and then midday, when she’s clearing out her (and Jeongyeon's, since her mom always packs enough for both) packed lunch and cracking open cans of cola and packets of chocolate snack cakes in commemoration of her now (barely _and_ finally) passing grade in Biology.

It goes to show without saying that the whole situation is as cliché as it can get: she crashes straight into her purely by accident, Mina’s books go flying, Nayeon spills her can of cola all over herself, Mina loses her footing, Nayeon’s quick enough to make a blind grab at her, and she narrowly saves Mina from meeting the floor by pulling her right back up—

A little too close— wait, has Myoui Mina always been _this_ pretty?

It’s a classic example of a beautiful accident: there’s cola all over her shirt and it’s cold and seeping through the white of her uniform and it’ll leave a nasty stain that’ll definitely have her mom yelling at her for a week straight, but— but that’s okay— that’s okay because she’s staring right into the beyond pretty eyes of The Myoui Mina with less than a dozen centimeters between them. It feels like time stops completely before there’s a sudden rush of blood in her ears, loud and everywhere and just enough to overcome the sudden _thump,_ _thump, thumpthump, thumpthumpthumpthump_ of her heart. She feels her stomach drop right out from beneath her all of a sudden and there’s a burning heat that pools at the base of her neck and she thinks— she thinks wow— just _wow,_ that the sudden surge of unexplainable feelings in her chest just might be her heart busting right through her ribs and jumping straight toward Mina.

Mina is the first one to apologize, her “I’m so sorry!” clearly accented and just— _God, adorable,_ before she quickly tears herself away from Nayeon’s hold and starts gathering all her scattered textbooks. Nayeon’s head is somewhere between holy shit, I think I just met my soulmate and I’m all wet and sticky and I don’t know what to do, but her body seems to function on its own, immediately bending down to help Mina collect her books despite the way the cola drips further down her shirt and starts to cling to her skin.

The quiet “thank you” and the tiny, barely-there smile Mina gives her when she hands back a worn down literature study book is enough to send her heart back into a frenzy, beating wildly against her ribs, and she almost doesn’t catch the way Mina takes two steps closer to her, presses a handkerchief into her palm swiftly for her uh, “sticky situation," doles out a second set of apologies, and continues on her way again moments later, shoulders brushing just barely as she races past, right before the class bell rings shortly afterwards.

It’s baby blue and clean and it even looks like smells nice and there’s a neat MM monogram in one corner of it and Nayeon just doesn’t think she could subject it to the sticky mess across her chest, so she tucks it in the pocket of her blazer instead and forgets about it not even ten minutes later when she’s running characteristically late to her next class. Typical.

-

(Nayeon, two weeks ago, pre-Mina:

It’s twelve in the morning, she’s got two hours and ongoing of video call time with Jeongyeon clocked in, and she’s in the middle of browsing through a tween forum she dubs tasteless (yet also simultaneously giving the site views daily) for popularizing this very article alone —

[Most Clicks Today] I fell in love with him at first sight!

_“… It’s like I saw him and time stopped…”_

_“… At that moment, I knew he was the one for me…"_

God… what a load of shit!

-

Nayeon, two minutes ago, post-Mina:

_I think I’m in love with her._

...

 _Fuck_.)

-

It’s already thirty minutes into her history lesson and Nayeon’s cooped up in the bathroom instead of falling asleep to the history of Joseon, Jeongyeon dragged with her against her will, and they’re emptying the paper towel dispenser in attempt to make the cola stain on her uniform shirt somewhat less noticeable.

Jeongyeon’s rubbing at her shirt when Nayeon’s thoughts float elsewhere, to her lackluster grade in history and even more lackluster attendance record, to the milk carton from this morning that she should’ve finished, to the girl she runs in to on accident who also ends up knocking her can of cola out of her hands and her heart right out of her chest.

“I think I’m in love,” she says, and it’s sudden, so sudden that it takes an extra second for her to even realize what she just said and her heart immediately bubbles right up at the thought of it.

Jeongyeon stops rubbing at her shirt abruptly. “What?”

“I think—” her gaze is wide, shifting right over to Jeongyeon who is starting to look equally perplexed. “I— I think I’m in love.”

“You’re in love with— _with who?_ ” Jeongyeon tries, hopes to God that it’s the cola all over Nayeon that’s making her loopy in the head. Her jaw drops, unknowingly so, and Nayeon finds the time to close it right up for her.

“I thin— I think I’m in love with... uh... Myoui Mina?”

Jeongyeon’s yanking at her tie harshly out of pure horror, partly because they’re eighteen and what the actual hell does Nayeon — the same exact girl who’s shown absolutely no interest in anything living and breathing apart from baby animals for years now (except for Im Jaebum but he doesn't get to count and that was just a _phase_ ) — know about love, and partly because Im Nayeon, her best friend since preschool, her freaking pan to her cake— is in love for the very first time! With a girl who probably doesn’t even know her name no less!

“You’re in love with... Myoui Mina? _Myoui Mina?_ Are you out of your mind?!"

Nayeon chokes, just a little bit, when Jeongyeon jostles her. She sends a kick right to Jeongyeon’s shin as she grabs her collar in return, and at the same exact moment, Minatozaki Sana — Myoui Mina’s best, best, _best_ friend and also the girl that sits two seats in front of Nayeon in history — walks right into the bathroom.

It’s an entire two minutes of awkward staring, a pair of curious eyes flickering between Nayeon and Jeongyeon respectively, before Sana walks up to the sink and acts like she's witnessed nothing. Nayeon and Jeongyeon let go of each other almost immediately, nearly shooting five feet away from each other, but Jeongyeon’s quick to grab her back by the collar, pretending like she’s still working on Nayeon’s cola stain even though they both know it won’t be coming out now or ever. Nayeon kind of just… stands there, eyes teetering between the back of Sana’s head and the suddenly interesting soap dispenser while Jeongyeon sticks a paper towel down her collar.

Sana’s working the soap in her hands into a lather, humming to herself, and it takes every ounce of willpower in Nayeon to not bolt into the nearest stall and lock herself in there forever and maybe flush herself down the toilet if she’s really feeling like it.

“Don’t worry,” Jeongyeon whispers under her breath, “she probably didn’t hear m—"

Sana clears her throat all of a sudden, effortlessly cutting Jeongyeon off without meaning to, “You’re in love with _who?”_

She feels that one. Right in the heart. It sounded weird coming out of her own mouth, sort of weird out of Jeongyeon’s, and now it’s even weirder out the mouth of Mina’s best friend. 

Jeongyeon shoves another crumpled paper towel ball down her shirt, partly out of panic and partly to catch her attention, and murmurs under her breath, tells her to pretend that she didn’t just hear that come out of Sana’s mouth. She’ll leave them alone if they keep acting like they don’t see or hear her — and honestly, it’s usually the other way around considering Sana’s place in the high school social hierarchy — since her life is clearly like a two-star romantic comedy with the plot down pat: a nobody within a population of hundreds who’s happened to come down with a bad case of a crush on a girl thousands of miles out of her league.

It’s terrible enough that she has bad heart palpitations and clammy palms whenever she even thinks back to the moment Mina was within two feet of her and in her arms. And yeah, sure, maybe that might be her heart leaping out of her chest and running toward Mina every single time, only to get kicked off to the side, but so what? Jeongyeon alone knowing is even worse. She does not need Mina’s best friend knowing so either.

Nayeon, however, oftentimes acts well against of what her mind tells her to do:

“Your best friend.”

She doesn’t mean to say it, and she certainly doesn’t mean to let her mouth go against her thoughts, but sometimes… well, she can’t help it that she’s always been impulsive to a goddamn tee. She feels her heart run right up against her ribs and Jeongyeon’s staring at her with her mouth wide open and this time, Nayeon doesn’t feel the need to close it for her.

Sana’s palm pushes the cold water tap to a close slowly. It’s quiet, eerily so, and Nayeon swears Sana can hear her heart about to bust out of her chest and well— it’ll probably run in the only single direction it knows: straight toward Mina, but— details, _details!_

“Oh.”

Sana wipes her hands dry, turns to give her a once over — twice! — hums for three seconds too long, and walks right on out without another word.

Jeongyeon shakes her again, paper tower balls pathetically dropping out of her shirt, calls her absolutely out of her mind for the second time, and well, this time, Nayeon agrees.

-

“ _You could, I don’t know, not go to school for like… the rest of the year? Sana’s probably going to tell Mina and then Mina’s going to know and be like ‘who the hell is this weirdo that’s in love with me? I don’t even know who she is!’ and then the whole school’s going to find out and—_ "

“I called you to help me, Jeong! Not make me drop out of school!”

“ _I’m just being realistic,_ ” she hears Jeongyeon sigh right into the mic. “ _She’s her best friend, dude. Best friends tell each other everything. Kinda like how you told me you got your hand stuck down the toil—_ "

Nayeon rolls onto her stomach, face pressed into her pillow and she lets out a muffled scream, cutting Jeongyeon off, which then the girl tells her to shut up for.

“ _Just sleep on it_ ,” Jeongyeon continues, and Nayeon hums when she hears bits and pieces of Ariana Grande in the background, “ _for all we know, maybe she didn’t hear it. Her ego’s so big that maybe it got in the way of her hearing._ ”

Nayeon laughs a little at that. “ _Don’t be mean, she’s a nice person, I think,_ ” she brings her phone closer to her face, lips pursed out for an air kiss that Jeongyeon rolls her eyes at. “ _Whatever, I’m gonna go to bed. You know, sleep it off or whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow._ ”

“ _Don’t think too much about it, okay? It’ll be fine,_ ” Jeongyeon’s grinning into the camera now, hair messy and hand raised briefly for a small wave. " _Night, idiot._ "

-

The next day, rather than being directly on the other side of the hallway where her own locker’s supposed to be, Sana's standing directly in front of _her_ locker. A part of her wants to believe that Sana’s lost her mind for whatever reason and now she thinks her own locker is Nayeon's and another part of her believes that Sana’s just waiting for her sorry ass to show up so she can make fun of her for crushing on her uh, very unattainable best friend.

Jeongyeon isn’t here yet and Nayeon just doesn’t think she can deal with all of this so early in the morning, so she does the next best thing: leg it to the bathroom and pray to God that the other girl doesn’t see her. Sana, however, grabs her wrist almost immediately when she tries to run past her. Her eyes are wide and bright in a way Nayeon’s never really seen before (but it’s not like she knows whether or not Sana’s eyes look like this often), and the grip on her wrist is insistent when she panics and tries to yank her hand away.

“Did you mean what you said yesterday?” Sana’s voice is serious, a stark contrast to the seemingly happy smile on her face and it’s only eight in the morning and Nayeon already feels like crying.

“Ye— Yeah,” she stutters out, tongue thick, as Sana's grip on her wrist tightens, “no, I mean, I don’t! I don— I do, I— I, uh, can we please just pretend yesterday didn’t happen at all, like… please? I think I was on some kind of drug—“

“I approve.”

“—I’m not saying it’s nurse Bae’s fault, but it kind of is. Did you know she gave me the wrong medication one time and I had to go to the— … wait, you what? … Approve of what?”

“You,” Sana’s grinning wide now, “and Minari.”

“You— wait, me— oh— and me? Mina? Oh, oh, oh— you… approve— of me… and Mina— what?”

“You’re so cute,” Sana says, easily, immediately sticking to her side. “Are you sure you’re in love with her? I wouldn’t mind if you were in love with me.”

Nayeon splutters in a way that makes Sana giggle and her face paints itself red. By now, there’s footsteps hurrying toward her from behind and a shout of “Nayeon!” that is unmistakably Jeongyeon. Sana grins one last time, eyes curving, and gives her reddening cheek a pat.

“I’m just kidding,” she nudges her in the shoulder with a happy laugh as she turns to leave, “and besides, I think your friend’s cuter.”

-

(“She asked if I meant what I said yesterday, and I said yes— but like, then I said no, and like, why did I say that? And just— okay, anyway! I was like ‘can we just forget about what happened yesterday like please’ and then she said ‘I approve’ all of a sudden and I was like ‘what? approve? approve of what?’ and then she said ‘of you and Mina’ and I was like ‘Mina and I— wait, what?!’ and then you cam—”

Jeongyeon looks unimpressed — as unimpressed as her ten-pixel face can be at least, considering Nayeon’s shitty wifi at home — and clearly more interested in entirely other things. “ _Gross, are you using the bathroom right now? You could at least mut—_ ”

“Jeongyeon!”)

-

A tiny part of her reassures her that Sana didn’t tell Mina — a hard _maybe_ , however, considering Sana’s known tendency to chatter — because there’s most definitely some universal law out there regarding high school crushes and how you don’t tell the other end about them, best friends or not be damned.

So with Sana knowing, nothing really changes, no, not really.

Well, except for this:

“Nayeon! Hi!”

Sana’s rounding down the hall, waving excitedly in her direction, which she briefly nods at, that is, until she sees a head peek out from beside Sana and her heart does that thing where it shakes and flips and flops all around the place behind her ribs.

By instinct, she whips around on the spot immediately, just in case staring too long might lead to a heart attack, head accidentally banging against the open door of her locker, and she can hear Sana’s obnoxiously loud laugh filtering from down the hall when she and Mina pass her.

It happens a lot more now, their exchange of hellos— or, well, most of the time (all of the time), it’s just Sana being loud and Nayeon merely acknowledging her with a nod. But like Nayeon, who eventually starts returning the waves, one day Mina gives her a tiny wave too when she passes by, surprisingly unaccompanied by Sana.

Nayeon manages to live off of that for an entire week.

-

(“ _Are you gonna tattoo it on your forehead now or what? She just waved at you, big deal,_ ” Jeongyeon says, ripping open her second bag of shrimp crackers of the night.

“The prettiest girl I’ve ever seen,” Nayeon stresses, shaking her phone around, “waved at me. It’s a big deal! Heck, it’s more than a big deal! It’s a big, big deal!”

“ _If she knew you a little better, she wouldn’t have done that,_ ” Jeongyeon rolls her eyes. “ _For all we know, she could’ve been waving at someone else. Maybe she was waving at, I don’t know, was Son Chaeyoung at her locker— oh my god, no, Seungyeon, get out of my room, I didn’t eat your shrimp crackers!_ ”)

-

Then:

Nayeon, a _totally_ mature, sorta-functioning resident of society, completely capable of making her own decisions at the tender age of eighteen, considers the prospect of relinquishing her heart in exchange for total unrequited pining “the best and worst thing she’s ever done in her entire life.” The apex, the tip-top, the cherry right on top of her growing list of high school crises.

Jeongyeon, on the other hand, tells her it’s a death sentence in the making. Period.

-

It isn’t easy when one’s familial network is more concerned about the birds and the bees than a puppy crush on a — wait for it! — Myoui Mina out of all people. She’s gotten more talk from her parents about staying safe when the _time_ comes rather than dealing with the frequent somersaults in her tummy and an awfully trembly heart— you know, the side effects of a crush. Ironic.

Jeongyeon makes it a teeny tiny bit easier, perhaps, but it’s still, _well,_ pretty bad. Jeongyeon is level-headed when she’s not, remembers everything she forgets, and not to mention, she’s tens and hundreds of more times more responsible than Nayeon will ever be in her entire lifetime. It isn’t much help that she’s never had a crush as severe and unattainable as the one Nayeon has for Myoui Mina out of all people in a world of seven billion, but she isn’t as useless as her own parents when it comes to the mere idea of a crush and Nayeon will take anything she’s given at this point.

Nayeon, still recovering from an influx of crippling heart palpitations after Mina had come to school sporting a brand new hairstyle — she got bangs! — ends up seeking solace in an unlikely source, the God of all advice when it comes to everything and anything, the unrivaled star of bad late night decisions after her own parents had failed to own up to her expectations: Google.

_how do i handle a crush_

The first and only result spanned throughout the entire first page:

  1. get over her



She pens it down anyway. It must be something worth noting, considering the fact that it’s the conclusion of all ten links on the first page. Jeongyeon rolls her eyes at her naivety and tells her to cross it out.

They’re barely through four pages of o's before Jeongyeon says all the results are stupid and they’re starting to kill her brain cells and those answer sites are nothing but a cesspool of ten-year-olds with nothing else to do. She then proceeds to steal Nayeon's laptop in order to type in her own thoughts about this whole ordeal:

_how do i get THE girl_

At first, Nayeon protests and tries to close the tab, but Jeongyeon’s taller and naturally, she has longer limbs, so it’s easier to smack Nayeon across the head and tell her to behave, that they’re both here, two in the morning with the laptop under the sheets as a shitty form of concealment if Nayeon’s mom decides to check up on them, trying to deal with _her_ girl problem. Nayeon doesn’t _get_ to complain.

The first two sites are a bust, ending with something that starts with an s and ends with an x and Nayeon glows red in that weird little way all (innocent) high schoolers do when the bird and the bees come into question. “That’s for later,” she murmurs under her breath, and Jeongyeon only smacks the back of her head and tells her to at least get the girl first.

The third site is a little better. There’s no mention of the word that has a very hormonal eighteen-year-old Nayeon’s mind running off to all sorts of inappropriate places and Nayeon seems to be genuinely interested in the content of the article, that is, until her hopes are quickly crushed when they get to the date part. She digs around in her pajama pockets and comes up with two hair ties and some crumbs from who knows when, not a hefty wad of cash dedicated to a first date dinner _and_ ice cream for dessert.

The fourth site— well— first of all,

Anything that’s titled Ask Dr. Luv! should _not_ be trusted. No buts.

Second of all,

Any site that uses a stock photo of hearts as the background definitely should not be allowed to be a website in existence in any dimensional plane at all.

Third of all,

Nayeon is far too easily and absolutely sold on the advice offered on the website. This time, as opposed to the earlier website, she’s genuinely penning down a list because hey, it really seems like she might have a shot with the girl of her dreams if she plays her cards right, at least according to this website. Or, she’s just wasting all her time on a girl that’s way out of her league and this whole thing will blow over with heartbreak on her end and she’s just going to have to suck it up and continue on with life. The former sounds nice, but her reality really seems to border on the latter.

Jeongyeon calls her out for being a superstitious fool and a gullible idiot for the nth time, interchangeably, then proceeds to commit every word of advice read to memory in order to help her best friend get the girl.

Eight hours later, the both of them having fallen asleep after another hour or two of bickering over Nayeon’s two AM, chicken scratch handwriting and Jeongyeon trying to help but being otherwise useless, Nayeon wakes up to an er— seemingly foolproof plan:

HOW TO GET THE GIRL

~~1\. get over her~~

1\. ~~don’t be weird~~ my god nayeon stop trying to revolve your whole life around her

2\. become her friend! get to know her!

3\. play it cool, IM NAYEON. play. it. cool.

4\. celebrate if you can even get to step 4

5\. IM NAYEON YOU CAN DO THIS!!!! ~~no you cant~~

6\. GET THE GIRL!!

At the very bottom, Jeongyeon’s handwriting is tiny, scrawled, the result of staying up until three in the morning, but it’s still somewhat legible and well… it puffs up Nayeon’s heart up anyway:

7\. just be yourself stupid and if she doesn’t fall in love with that, ~~she’s doing herself a favor~~ she’s obviously missing out on the best thing she could’ve had :) fighting nabongs!!!! i believe in you!

The list, written on pink Hello Kitty notebook paper and as embarrassing as it is, is folded neatly and slipped into the front of her binder, where she has no choice but to look at it every day and (hopefully) act on it. Characteristically, Nayeon forgets about it come Monday. Even takes the time to unfold it during class out of pure confusion and nearly breaks her desk in half when she slams her binder over the cursed paper when she reads over its contents. It’s loud enough to have nearly the entire class turn their attention towards her, Sana especially, who eyes her with the smug-est smile she’s ever seen in her life, like she totally knows something Nayeon doesn’t. Maybe Jeongyeon’s not wrong to be so suspicious about her. Nayeon’s only quick to stuff the list back to where ever the hell it came from, ignoring everyone and anyone as she feels the temperature in her body shoot up to match the Sun’s.

Yup. This will totally go great.

-

And then that’s all there really is to it. Their worlds aren’t exactly in relative orbits of each other, not anywhere near if anyone’s being honest, save for Sana’s morning greetings and suspicious ass looks from across the hall when she walks by with Mina glued to her side, and there’s really no other reason for them to interact.

Nayeon’s still the idiot with an insanely huge crush on a girl that probably doesn’t know her name, and Mina’s still… well, Mina — beautiful, a thousand miles out of her scoring range, and pretty much sought after by the whole high school population, boys and girls alike.

The reality of it sucks, like, really sucks, and her life feels like it’s straight out of a rom-com box office failure because how cliché can it get? The girl with a less-than-stellar lack of a reputation falls in love with _THE_ girl — you know, the girl that everyone knows, the girl that everyone kind of falls in love with at one point in their life.

A crush sucks.

A crush on Myoui Mina sucks, but it’s okay for the most part, even though it’s actually like impending doom more than anything else.

(Oh well. Anything for THE girl.) 

-

The second time they meet, like really meet — as unromantic as it sounds — is in front of the school doors at the end of the day.

It’s sticky and wet outside, as expected of April showers. The sky is unrelenting with its sheets of rain and it pitters and patters in a way Nayeon likes, courtesy of most of her rainy afternoons holed up in the library and spent fast asleep in the seat closest to the window as Jeongyeon’s glossing over notes next to her.

Though, amidst heads of soppy black heads and the colorful tops of umbrellas that filter out of the school, she spots familiar tufted bangs and sun-kissed brown. She swallows, feels her heart squeeze in a way she’s starting to get used to.

It’s funny how the human psyche works, how her legs drag themselves toward her without being prompted to, how she’s knocking shoulders with people she doesn’t know and forgoing the apologies just by the mere fact that all of a sudden, it feels like it’s just her and the girl of her adolescent affections in the moment, how she squeezes herself next to the unsuspecting girl, not too close but not too far. 

How it feels like they’re past the benchmark of mere strangers although that’s exactly what they are: mere strangers!

One moment, her hands are fumbling with her umbrella, the next, she’s finally got it open and she takes a big breath before she takes two steps to the side, and without a single ounce of shame whatsoever — proceeds to hold up her umbrella over the both of them despite the fact that part of the school building is still covering them.

Mina’s immediate reaction is to turn her head and stare directly at her. Wide-eyed and pretty-faced and everything. Nayeon feels her heart speed up dangerously and she thinks she might even pass out on the spot with the way Mina’s looking at her — curiously so, with a head tilt that makes Nayeon feel weak in the knees.

“Hi,” is all she’s able to breathe out, a beat too soon in terrible attempt to conceal her jitters.

“Hi,” Mina replies, and it’s quiet but it sounds so nice and so soft and just _so_ … Mina. “Can I help you?”

Nayeon swallows. Feels that beat in the back of her ears and she prays to some higher deity above that she does _not_ mess this up.

“Ye— Yeah,” and she already knows her mouth’s ready to run off on its own, “by letting me walk you home.”

(Mentally, Jeongyeon smacks her clear across the head for that beyond terrible line. Oh, and there’s also a whole bunch of chaos and a burning fire in her head, along with all the mini Nayeons running around in panic at the realization that she just went ahead and did everything she _wasn’t_ supposed to.)

It is about time, after all, that if she wants to get _THE_ girl, then she should probably… uh, talk to her. Yeah. Talk to her. She can’t keep dancing orbits around Mina forever, or keep letting her heart run off on its own whenever possible. Can’t possibly continue to pine after her from twenty feet away behind the door of her locker, or keep pushing her How To Get THE Girl agenda to the back of her head. Alternatively: Im, quit fucking staring.

Mina, however, gives her a tiny smile, the corners of her lips twitching up, and for a split second, Nayeon feels she might’ve done something _right_ instead. “That’s okay. I can wait for the rain to let up. You should go home first.”

“No!” she says a little too quickly and loudly in return, causing the both of them to jump slightly, “I— I mean, I— I really don’t mind! It’s raining pretty hard and I don’t— _Idon’twantyouwalkingbackbyyourselftoolate—_ “

Her jumbled rambling makes her go red in the face, terribly so, and Mina seems to notice, because she thinks she sees her smile gets a fraction bigger and oh my god, Nayeon thinks her heart’s about to combust right in her chest too. _Heart, I’ll beat the shit out of you. Don’t do that. Please, for the love of god, don’t do that… beat… beatbeatbeat… beatbeatbeatbeat thing. Please. I’m begging you._ Mina seems to contemplate for a second, thumbs tucking underneath the straps of her backpack before she offers a tiny nod that Nayeon almost doesn’t catch. “Are you sure? I live kind of far away.”

“That’s— that's okay,” and how she works up a small smile in return is beyond her, “I don't— I-I really don’t mind at all.”

“Really?"

“Really. It’s fine,” is what she manages without tripping all over her words once again, surprisingly, even though deep inside it feels more like a so fine than just a fine. A more than fine, an I’d-walk-an-hour-and-back-for-you-in-the-pouring-rain kind of fine.

Mina sends her another smile, a lot wider and _woah, wait—_ _is that a silver tooth?!_ before she motions with a tiny nod of her head and Nayeon doesn’t realize she’s staring again until—

“Okay,” Mina says softly, and Nayeon almost trips over her own two feet after her.

-

“How’s your shirt?”

It comes at least two minutes into their walk to Mina’s house — or, Mina walking and more so of Nayeon following like a lost puppy of sorts — and Nayeon didn’t think Mina even remembered that, or let alone know it was her.

“Oh,” and Nayeon’s surprised she can even formulate words when she’s nearly brushing shoulders with Mina. “Well... it smells good.”

 _God, why did you even choose to open your mouth?!_ Nayeon thinks to herself, gives herself a mental slap across the face. Out of all things possible, she chooses to say that. Well, there goes all her chances with Myoui Mina. _It was nice knowing you!_

Mina, however, finds it funny (or stupid? or maybe she’s just pitying her) and even gives her a tiny laugh that makes Nayeon’s heart expand just a little. “Is that so?”

Nayeon’s smile is beyond shaky, but manageable nonetheless. “Yeah, well, it… it’s okay. I can always get a new one.”

“Sorry about that again, I should’ve watched where I was going,” Mina says, and Nayeon’s eyes almost fly out of their sockets because Mina is absolutely the last person that should be apologizing. If anything—

“No!” The umbrella shakes a little along with her sudden exclamation. “It was— It was totally my fault, I was the one not watching where I was going and I’m sure I got some cola on your books, so if it’s sticky… just— just let me know and I’ll get you brand new ones—“

It’s embarrassing, how fidgety and stuttery she is around the other girl, but Mina seems to think otherwise, lips curling into yet another small smile that makes Nayeon feel like an impending heart attack is well on its way, considering the number of times her heart has sped up in a mere span of twenty minutes.

Mina's steps come to a slow stop, right in front of a house where morning glories cling to the front gates and rose beds skirt its premise. It should have been a given, that Mina lives in the arguably nicer part of town, a quiet household tucked away in a tiny corner of the exurbs. It fits her, Nayeon can’t help to think, as she watches the way Mina toes bashfully at a particularly tiny puddle on the sidewalk when they’re awkwardly rendered into absolute silence.

Then, this very exact moment equates to that of another trademark romantic chick flick scene:

“You’re cute.”

Nayeon blinks once, twice, and even a third time, gaze flying right back up to meet Mina’s the minute it comes out the girl’s mouth. She’s still smiling, beautifully so, and Nayeon can’t help but to gape stupidly in return, entirely unaware of the sudden dust of pink that fills Mina’s cheeks and matches her own.

_She—_

“T-Thank you for walking me home, Nayeon,” Mina continues anyway, albeit shakily (but she’s so, so much better at managing it than Nayeon will ever be), pushing her keys into the gate lock clumsily, and then she’s sending Nayeon one last smile — the kind where her eyes curve up into crescents and makes Nayeon’s blood pressure rise tenfold — before she turns on her heels and closes the gate behind her a little too quickly.

_She…knows my name! She called me cute!_

Every single ounce of collected bravado left in Nayeon after that twenty-minute walk to Mina’s house seems to leave her body all at once, turning her arms and legs right into jelly. It makes her drop her umbrella out of pure shock, only to let out a pathetic yelp at the rain as she scrambles to lift her umbrella back up.

Her shirt is soaked (nothing a quick toss in the dryer couldn’t fix), her umbrella’s covered with rain on the wrong side (she’s already wet anyway, so what’s the point), and Myoui Mina just kind of… called her cute.

(This absolutely _cannot_ be good for her heart.)

-

_“Dude, Nayeon, why are you still outside? Shouldn’t you be home by now?”_

“She… she.. she—“

_“She who? God, are you okay? Where are you?”_

There’s rain getting all over her phone and she makes a terrible attempt at cleaning it up by rubbing her phone against her already wet shirt. Jeongyeon complains.

_“Nayeon, oh my god— go home already! The rain’s not gonna stop until later and I’m not gonna take notes for you if you get sick.”_

“She—“

_"What?"_

“She— she… she called me c-cute!”

Jeongyeon hangs up.

-

“‘Wow, Jeongyeon, you were totally right. Look at me now, I got sick like you said I would and now I’m stuck in bed like an idiot and can’t do my own notes. Thanks, Jeongyeon, you’re the best-est friend ever, there’s no one out there like you,’” Jeongyeon mocks when she walks in through Nayeon’s bedroom door, “would be a great way to greet me, you know?”

Nayeon ignores Jeongyeon entirely and only complains that Jeongyeon being here is making her head hurt even more.

“She called me cute,” Nayeon once again reiterates after a beat, though this time it’s two days later and she’s currently in the midst of possibly the worst cold she’s ever had in _years_.

Jeongyeon rolls her eyes, settling down beside her as she starts pulling out the notes from today to help write them into Nayeon’s own notebook. “Yeah,” Jeongyeon only makes a face of disgust as Nayeon suddenly sneezes and she pushes the tissue box closer to Nayeon. “She called you cute. I _get_ it.”

“She knows my name,” Nayeon says, nose running and everything. She’s not sure if it’s the cold medicine making her all crazy in the head or the actual fact that Myoui Mina — listen, it’s Myoui Mina out of all the goddamn people in the world — knows her name. Even called her by it!

“She knows your name,” Jeongyeon repeats. This time, she shoves a tissue into Nayeon’s face. “I think a lot of people know your name, but hey, that’s great.”

“She—“

“She knows your name and called you cute,” Jeongyeon finishes for her, not even missing a beat.

“Yeah,” Nayeon can only say, sniffling, and totally delirious from all the cold medication in her system yet dopiest grin ever sits on her face.

Jeongyeon only watches her quietly, surprisingly, settling for shaking her head moments later at the prospect of her best friend being absolutely nuts over one girl, even getting herself sick in the process just to be able to walk her home.

The shit Nayeon would do for this Mina girl, really. 

Adorably stupid or stupidly adorable?

(Probably _just_ stupid.)

-

Life after knowing that Mina knows of her existence, is just— it’s just a hundred times better. Nayeon doesn’t even know how she lived before that.

Tiny hallway waves turn into quiet “Hi, Nayeon”s. Sometimes “How are you?”s follow after, and if she’s lucky, maybe even minute-long conversations when they happen to run into each other at the front gates. Not that Nayeon purposely walks slower once she starts getting closer to the school just so she can have a greater chance of actually running into Mina.

“Hey, is anyone sitting next to you?” comes right after, a few days later, after school in the library when it’s raining again. Nayeon’s on the brink of passing out against the mismatched surface of a bookshelf, having tucked herself away in a particularly quiet corner of the library after Jeongyeon flaked on her for reasons she wouldn’t say and her usual window spot had been overrun by underclassmen.

(“You can borrow my shoulder if you want” is next, not even five minutes in, when Mina’s settled herself comfortably next to her, textbooks and papers scattered around her. She’s staring over at her with a soft smile, and Nayeon feels a tiny part of her heart swell despite her mind telling it not to.

She does, unknowingly so, if the realization of her position and the redness across her face when she wakes up is anything to go by. She doesn’t mean to react so suddenly, shooting right up, but Mina doesn’t seem to mind, head lulling right off of hers to land on her shoulder.

She forgets that her mom wanted her home earlier today, something about being here when her younger sister gets home from school, but she supposes an ear-pulling accompanied by an hour long lecture on punctuality is worth it, if it meant she was able to witness this:

Mina’s even prettier when she’s up close and sleeping (and she convinces herself she’s _not_ being creepy, just painfully observant). Nayeon didn’t even know she had all those moles sprinkled across her face, kind of like a constellation of sorts. Didn’t know she was drooler. Definitely didn’t know that Mina sleeps with brow scrunched either. It’s possibly the cutest thing in the world and Nayeon feels like melting into a pathetic puddle in this crappy school library already.

Yeah, totally worth it.)

-

And just when Nayeon thought it couldn’t get any better than this (this, as in Mina actually acknowledging her existence and even _talking_ to her), it does.

Their worlds still remain in entirely different orbits but it almost feels like _something_ miraculous happens, like there’s some kind of change in the universe and the planets align and the stars burn brighter and everything starts happening faster than Nayeon’s poor brain can comprehend. 

They’re (kind of) something a little more than acquaintances now, she supposes, because now, all the “Hi, Nayeon”s start getting followed by Mina walking alongside her once she’s far enough to shake off Jeongyeon, bumping shoulders in silence until the moment they reach Nayeon’s homeroom. There’s still hardly any words exchanged, but the shy smile Mina offers her as she departs, along with a soft “see you later” makes her heart soar anyway. It’s very Mina-like, she learns to attribute, the little changes in their relationship that come with time. It’s nothing as explosive as knocking over an armful of books or spilling cola everywhere, nothing as ballsy as coming up to a girl you barely know and asking to take her home on the rainiest day of the week.

It is, however, like this:

It’s like the morning glories that line Mina’s front gates. How the morning glories bloom in tandem to the way Nayeon’s life is blooming in order to accommodate someone as spectacular as Myoui Mina! How she’s starting to fit herself into the tiny pockets of Nayeon’s life. Nayeon didn’t even know she had pockets for her! Made for Mina especially! How she makes all the big things and the little things a tad brighter, a tad prettier, and a heck ton cuter. How, Mina, just like the prettiest morning glory there is, is just… _well,_ starting to belong.

She doesn’t even do anything! Mina’s just Mina! She’s nothing but soft and cute and everything warm and fluffy but here she is: crashing in through Nayeon’s life like nothing, yet still knocking everything completely out of control! The mini Nayeons in her head are practically bouncing off the walls of her skull. Her heart can’t stop cartwheeling around within her ribcage. Even her stomach gets hit with an onslaught of butterflies every chance it can get. Nayeon just can’t let herself live.

It’s how Nayeon starts taking care in letting Mina knock her life out of complete orbit with no qualms whatsoever — just like how they ran straight into each other first thing! — and how her heart had let Mina unceremoniously squeeze herself into everything that is Im Nayeon. She even starts fitting Mina in all the little nooks and crannies of her life unknowingly, regardless of what it is:

Nayeon feels like drinking milk. _Oh, maybe Mina would like a carton too._

Jeongyeon gifts her the chocolates she likes the best, the kind that Nayeon would rather die than share, but— _maybe Mina would like two or three pieces. Or all of it if she wants._

Hey, there’s this really cute post about puppies that showed up on her Instagram feed. _Maybe Mina would like to see it, too._

Nayeon’s mom packed only one container of strawberries for lunch. _Well, Nayeon really likes strawberries… but Mina really likes strawberries too, so… she'll save them for her._

Nayeon’s really, really, really in love with Mina. _And hey, it’d be cool if maybe Mina just might be too?_

  1. ~~don’t be weird~~ ~~stop trying to revolve your whole life around her~~ FAIL!



-

Nayeon and Mina? They start actually becoming a… thing. Like a friends kind of thing. Actual _friends_. It’s not weird to see them together anymore, to see Nayeon up to no good like she usually is, and Mina trailing behind closely to balance out all her chaos. It’s a combination no one expects, really, because when did the likes of Mina ever go together with the likes of Nayeon? A disaster in the making, perhaps. The world will never know. 

Nayeon even sometimes waits for Mina’s class to finish, two milk cartons in hand. Maybe pork buns too, if she’s early enough to beat the lunch crowd. Mina waits for her after school, when Nayeon’s kept behind to get another earful about her teetering grade in Biology (again). Nayeon sometimes walks Mina home and Mina sometimes walks Nayeon home. When it rains, they share one umbrella. Sometimes Nayeon will accidentally step in a puddle deeper than it seems and her socks will get soaked and she’ll whine and complain like the baby she is, yet still makes it a point to walk Mina all the way back home, squishy socks and squeaky shoes be damned.

They meet up in the library more than anything else, however. In the same little corner where Nayeon had first tucked herself into and promptly fell asleep on Mina. Though these days, it’s more of Nayeon falling asleep against Mina’s shoulder when she makes it halfway through her homework problem sheet and deems it a waste of time. Sometimes Mina falls asleep, too, and it’s the best thing ever because Nayeon gets to watch her sleep and die a little inside every time because of how fucking cute Mina is, but also because she gets to make fun of her for drooling on her shoulder and everything afterwards. Pouty Mina, as a result of such teasing, kills something in Nayeon each time, too. It’s pretty great.

Jeongyeon eventually warms up to Mina too, and by extension, Sana as well, who seems to have taken a liking toward her now that their best friends are ditching them for each other. Though Jeongyeon's seriously impressed at Nayeon’s progress in being able to befriend and actually be _good_ friends the girl, Mina’s a pretty cool person anyway. Her best friend’s ego isn’t as big as she thought it was and she’s (kinda) cute when she’s not all over her every chance she can get _and_ Mina knows her Legos. So maybe Nayeon _does_ have taste.

  1. ~~become her friend! get to know her!~~ CHECK!



Over time, Nayeon learns how to keep her heart in check. It still speeds up a bit around Mina and her stomach still feels funny and knees beyond weak, but it’s getting better... somewhat. She doesn’t even stutter around her _and_ her face doesn’t turn into the same shade as a tomato at the mere proximity of Mina anymore! It’s the biggest win in her book, really.

Before, Mina was kind of just a crush. The crush that’d make Nayeon’s heart want to implode with how much she’s so, _so_ in love with a girl that deserves nothing but the entire world, the crush that has Nayeon falling and falling and falling harder each passing day. The crush that Nayeon spent hours, Taylor Swift love songs on repeat at two in the morning, staring at the ceiling and thinking about someone she’d fly to the moon for. 

Now, Mina’s still a crush, but she’s the crush that, _well,_ turns out to be something way, _way_ better than _just_ a crush.

Getting to know Mina is surprisingly easy. Her personality comes out in all the best ways, in all the tiny things she does, and Nayeon learns a lot of things in just a little bit of time.

Like:

Mina thinks sporks are the greatest invention ever. Cute, compared to Nayeon who thinks toilet paper and sliced bread are very worthy contenders for that spot.

Mina likes dogs, but she thinks cats are okay too. She has her own dog at home, but he’s kind of an old boy so all he does is sleep nowadays. She also has a pair of those big-brained ass looking goldfish, named Gold and Fish because Mina was nine and nine-year-old Mina couldn’t think of anything easier at the moment when she named them.

All of Mina’s coats and sweatshirts are a little bigger than they’re supposed to be, her mom convinced that one day Mina will really grow into them (even though it’s been a few years now), but the sweater paws they give her makes Nayeon melt a little in the inside anyway. 

An avid gamer, she claims, even though to this day, all she plays is Animal Crossing on her old, clunky 3DS. Pocket Camp on her phone if she’s feeling rebellious. And to think that Mina had the nerve to make fun of her for playing FarmVille when she, for one, is no better than her.

Mina doesn’t like ice cream. Nayeon had asked once, called it a “casual weekend hang out between two friends” because she was way too wimpy to call it a date, and promptly left on her read for 10 minutes (because really, she can’t last any longer) when Mina had said such a terrible, _terrible_ thing.

Mina likes emojis. A lot. It’s really cute.

(Two weeks ago:

Nayeon had finally gotten Mina's number, albeit randomly. They're once again holed up in the corner of the library and Mina’s watching her play FarmVille out of complete boredom when she suddenly notes that they don’t have each other’s numbers. Soundlessly, she plucks Nayeon’s phone out of her hands, even though Nayeon was in the middle of collecting her all crops she spent nearly a day waiting for, and adds herself as a contact.

Then, Nayeon proceeds to go home and lose her mind about it — because it’s _progress,_ baby! — for perhaps an hour straight through video call, much to Jeongyeon’s annoyance. She musters up a week’s worth of courage to even force herself to send the first text, spending nearly another hour typing and deleting what to say first:

**Im Nayeon (10:04 PM):**

hi mina, it’s nayeon

**Myoui Mina (10:07 PM):**

Hi Nayeon 😃

I wanted to text you earlier, but I realized you had my number but I didn’t have yours

So I was starting to think I put in the wrong number haha 😂 

“Oh my god,” Nayeon chokes out, eyes wide as she stares down at the screen and nearly loses it completely. “ _Oh my god,_ Jeongyeon. She said she wanted to text me, but she forgot she only gave me her number without taking mine. She even texted back fast, then triple texted and sent two emojis! Jeongyeon! What does this mean?!”

“ _Wow,_ ” Jeongyeon says, sounding bored. “ _I think Mina’s saying she wanted to talk to you. And that you’re a fucking idiot for making her wait so long! Way to get the girl, Nayeon._ ”

“I was panicking, _okay,_ ” Nayeon grumbles into the mic. “Like what if I was coming off too strong if I said ‘hey, mina’ with an exclamation point? It’d be too bold if I said ‘what’s up, mina?’ What if she didn’t like emojis first thing? The first text _matters_ , Jeongyeon!”

“ _It’s just a text, dude,_ ” Jeongyeon’s laughing. “ _But yeah, sure, she’s judging you on whether or not you used an exclamation point. Totally._ ”

“Shut up, you just don’t understand,” Nayeon says, fingers shaky as she’s already typing in her next reply.

**Im Nayeon (10:09 PM):**

sorry, i was just busy and i kind of forgot :(

Nayeon recites what she sent out loud. “Does that sound good?”

“ _Guilt-tripping her with a sad face already?”_

“What?! No!” She pauses for a moment. “Wait, is that really guilt-trippy? Oh, _shit_ —"

Nayeon immediately starts typing in damage control. Sends it before she even has time to worry about it fifty times over.

**Im Nayeon (10:09 PM):**

how was your day though?

**Myoui Mina (10:11 PM):**

Mine was okay, I think 🤔 how about you?

**Im Nayeon (10:12 PM):**

u gave me ur number and it was the best day ever (Not Delivered)

it was pretty good! i just finished up my hw so i’m kinda bored now

**Myoui Mina (10:15 PM):**

Wow, you did your homework? I’m surprised

I’m bored too 😭 I could go to sleep, but I kind of don’t want to anymore

“ _I think she means ‘I could go to sleep but you finally texted me after what, eight hours? So I’ll stay up because I want to talk to you so bad,’”_ Jeongyeon says with a snicker. Nayeon ignores her because there’s no way Mina would ever, _ever_ do that. For Nayeon? Yeah right. 

Instead, she merely thumbs down reacts to Mina’s jab about her homework habits. Then, she’s staring at her screen in confusion once again. “She’s bored too. How do I reply to this?"

“ _Send an 8 Ball request. Duh._ ”

“What? _8 Ball?_ I can’t just do that! That’s weird!”

“ _What else are you going to say? ‘Oh, haha, you’re bored, I’m bored, wow look at us, we’re meant to be.’ Do you have anything better?”_

Nayeon is silent for the longest minute, staring down at the blinking text cursor. Jeongyeon is kinda... right. She really _cannot_ think of anything better to say. She gives in with a sigh of defeat. “… Okay. Fine."

**Im Nayeon (10:16 PM):**

oh, want to play a game then?

imessage game :)

**Myoui Mina (10:18PM):**

Sure, I’m down 😊

**Im Nayeon (10:21 PM):**

(8 Ball game) 

Let’s play 8 Ball!

**Myoui Mina (10:22 PM):**

Oh, I totally suck at this game

Sana only plays with me because she knows she’d win lol 😬

“She said she sucks,” Nayeon says. Her heart kind of… flips. That’s kinda cute. Nayeon, when it comes to anyone saying they suck at 8 Ball, would be laughing maniacally and already collecting all the potential wins in her head. Nayeon, when it comes to Mina saying she sucks at 8 Ball, wants pocket the cue ball every single round _just_ for her. “I don’t want to beat her in one turn.”

Here’s the thing about Nayeon… she’s kind of an 8 Ball pro if she’s being honest. She’d drop out of school to play 8 Ball all day if she could. Not to toot her own horn, but also _yes_ , to completely toot her own horn, she could basically win an entire game within a single turn. Many, many Biology lessons traded in favor to kick Jeongyeon’s ass in the said game can attest to that. The worst thing to be proud of, really, but Nayeon takes pride in the little things in life. Being good at 8 Ball is a very worthy feat no matter what Jeongyeon says, who only shits on her all the time about it because _clearly,_ she’s jealous she can never win against her. 

“ _Okay? Then don’t? Lose on purpose then._ ”

“B-But... my 156 win streak...” 

**Myoui Mina (10:23 PM):**

Go easy on me? Please?

🥺 

_Oh my god._ She—

“Jeongyeon,” Nayeon manages to breathe out without choking on air. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodbye.”

“ _Wha—_ “

Jeongyeon’s hung up on almost immediately and Nayeon… Nayeon’s currently going through it. It, as in Mina just used the _cutest_ ass emoji on her and singlehandedly made her entire week once again without knowing, and the worst part is that Nayeon wants to get on her knees and thank Mina for doing so. 

Her heart, flip-flopping all around in her chest as a result of all of _this_ , only drives Nayeon to toss her phone to some random part of her bed, stuff her face into her pillow, and scream.

While Mina’s emoji use is local and basic at best but still definitely adorable, she… she just… 

🥺’d her.

A single emoji should not have such an effect on her but to no one’s surprise, it _does._

Nayeon spends nearly five minutes trying to find her phone after throwing it off somewhere and nearly passes out (yes, from that emoji alone) and Mina wins her third total 8 Ball game ever and Nayeon’s win streak is reset right back to zero. Mina gets all happy and excited at the result of her actually winning — although Nayeon was definitely letting her, but _shhhh,_ Mina is being so cute and excited and she doesn’t need to know that — that she even sends another game to play and what’s Nayeon going to do? Say no?

She will lose as many games as she needs to. Just so Mina can—

**Myoui Mina (10:48 PM):**

It’s fun playing with you

🥰

—do _that_. Yeah. 

(Even if Mina’s _only_ having fun just by beating Nayeon. At least the emoji is enough to have Nayeon screaming into her pillow for a second time.)

Nayeon’s heart crumbles just a little at the prospect of it, how easily she’d give up something she was used to defending with her entire life before, but well...

Anything for THE girl, right?)

-

Nowadays, when Sana passes with Mina in the hallways, Nayeon starts returning Sana’s waves with equal fervor. Sometimes — most of the time — Mina even leaves Sana to sidle up next to her when she’s in the middle of rummaging through her locker.

Just like today. Sana only rolls her eyes and is about to dole out an annoying set of complaints, but then she catches sight of Jeongyeon down the far side of the hallway with her soccer club buddies, and is quick to shut up. Screw it, really — Nayeon can have Mina all she wants.

“Just making sure that you’re not going to bang your head, _again,_ ” Mina grins, leaning against the closed locker next to hers. Mina’s a cheeky little shit when she really wants to be. Nine times out of ten it’s only toward Nayeon. It’s a blessing and a curse, really.

Nayeon rolls her eyes, yet the goofy smile that grows on her face betrays her. Mina can’t see it. “That was once.”

“The probability of you doing that again happens to be very likely,” Mina nearly sing songs once Nayeon’s done switching her books. She shifts a little, moving to face Nayeon’s open locker door.

“And why is that?” Nayeon says, moving to close her locker, only to be greeted with a whole two eyeful of Mina’s face once it’s completely shut.

Oh.

Oh god.

The amount of distance between their faces is enough to make Nayeon’s heart lurch right up against her ribcage and she already feels the heat starting to pool in her face. She almost chokes on nothing with the way it feels like all the air in her lungs have just been knocked out in one go. It feels like all her joints lock into place in that single moment and all she wants to do is maybe… die or have the ground swallow her whole. Whichever is faster.

  1. ~~play it cool, IM NAYEON. play. it. cool.~~ FAIL!



“You’ll bang your head if you aren’t paying attention, silly,” Mina’s merely smiling, happily so, as she brings a hand up to rap her knuckles lightly against Nayeon’s forehead. Nayeon can only blink dumbly. “See? Just like that.”

_Just like that!_

Just like that, Mina has Nayeon nursing possibly the craziest wave of butterflies she’s experienced thus far. Her heart puffs up impossibly and all she feels like doing is floating away. Or maybe slam her head against her locker twenty times over. 

_How could I possibly do that when you're looking at me like that, Mina?_

_Jesus, Myoui Mina,_ the five minute warning bell rings not even moments later, and Mina only smiles in that cute way that she always does and only motions for her to start heading to class, turning on her heels to head to her own. Nayeon’s heart only wants to follow after her. _You have absolutely no idea what you’re doing to me!_

-

“Well, well, well,” Nayeon tuts, not looking up from her phone, when she feels Mina’s head against her shoulder. “Look who’s the one sleeping now.”

“I finished most of my work,” Mina defends herself. “You just played FarmVille the whole time.”

“I’ve got to harvest my crops, Mina,” Nayeon says, tapping at her phone as Mina watches tiredly. Not even seconds later, Mina reaches over to push her fingers away and tap at the screen for her, collecting all her strawberries idly. “You just don’t understand.”

Mina makes a small sound that sounds like a snort. It’s cute. “Whatever. Did you just need to collect all these?”

“No, you need to get those—“

Without any warning, Mina gives up on tapping at her screen and decides to pry her hand away from her phone, only to slot her fingers between Nayeon’s to hold her hand. Nayeon’s heart, by default, is already flying off to only god knows where. It’s a welcome feeling.

“You know,” Nayeon somehow manages. She’s getting better at this whole “keeping it calm and collected around Mina” thing nowadays. Someone needs to give her a gold star. “You could’ve just told me you wanted to hold hands.”

Mina digs herself deeper against her side. Nayeon feels light-headed already. “That’s no fun, now _shhhh,_ I want to sleep.

Nayeon doesn’t say anymore, abiding my Mina’s request without a single protest. Half of her crops even die when she’s too busy being focused on the way Mina’s hand is locked up around hers, kind of like it was meant to be. Mina’s fingers fit a little too perfectly between the gaps of Nayeon’s own, and that fact alone is enough to make a burst of warmth settle within the little crevices of her chest — her favorite kind to revel in, really, a feeling for a sore heart that _can’t_ just stop feeling, after a day of zero? or a lot? of lucrative gains within her HOW TO GET THE GIRL agenda.

Speaking of that—

Wait.

Which step is holding hands?

-

The second and last time _this_ happens, Nayeon’s playing paper ball soccer in the hallway during a study period when she’s supposed to be helping clean the classroom. Mina’s off doing office duties like the model student she is. Nayeon can never and will never relate.

This, as in:

The paper ball's kicked completely off to the side, all the way down the hall by Jeongyeon, who only grins sheepishly and shrugs, says she’s closer than her and automatically makes Nayeon in charge of getting it back. Nayeon rolls her eyes, only because she doesn’t want to help clean, has no choice but to turn and race down the empty hall to get it. Jeongyeon’s called into the classroom the next second by a particularly stingy classmate who only hands her broom and tells her to get to it.

A classroom door opens at the wrong time, when Nayeon’s running like an idiot for a goddamn paper ball for no reason whatsoever, and she promptly crashes into the poor person that steps out.

It feels a little like déjà vu, honestly, but this time, it’s a whole bunch of papers that get knocked out of their folder and scatter across the floor. There are no books flying or cola spilled everywhere or a pretty girl that knocks her heart out of her chest along with everything else.

Once again, she’s thankful for her quick reflexes that she manages to grab the unsuspecting person and save them from landing right onto their ass. She could pretty much be a superhero at this rate. She pulls them right back up, only to nearly slam foreheads with—

It’s a whole minute of awkward staring, when Nayeon belatedly realizes that the cinnamon eyes she’s been embarrassingly getting lost in for the longest thirty seconds ever now belong to none other than the same exact girl that had nearly sent her into cardiac arrest months ago from this _same_ exact situation:

Myoui Mina!

It’s like the world stops spinning on its axis, like time slows down even to the tiniest nanosecond, and that brings them here: once again pressed up against each other with Nayeon’s heart beating on overdrive, though this time a lot less sticky and dramatic and hey, they aren’t strangers anymore! 

A part of her is preening like crazy on the inside, how she always ends up with THE girl in her arms without even doing anything to warrant it. Another, however, is breaking out into cold sweat and on the very edge of a breakdown when all the mini Nayeons in her head are starting fires and knocking all the file cabinets over in a beyond desperate search to figure out where on the fucking HOW TO GET THE GIRL list does this apply to.

Step 2? Step 5? Step 9? Step 20? Step 136? _Help, help, help—_

“I think,” Mina speaks up after the longest while, immediately crashing every single one of Nayeon’s train of thoughts, “that we really have got to stop meeting like this.”

Nayeon can’t help that ridiculous smile that forms on her face the next second. “You just have to stop running into me.”

“You mean _you,_ ” Mina laughs a little. Her gums show. “I wasn’t the one literally running down the hallway.”

Nayeon pouts a bit. “Are you saying you don’t like it when we meet like this?”

Mina hums. It’s playful. “I never said anything.”

“Well, thankfully,” Nayeon manages a grin, jostling Mina in her arms a bit, “at least there’s no cola.”

“Or books,” Mina adds quietly, laugh soft.

“Or books,” Nayeon only repeats after her, a little lost in the way she’s still losing all semblances of herself to this one girl who probably doesn’t even know how many times she’s made Nayeon’s heart nearly crumble in on itself every single time she smiles or breathes or exists or does— _does something._ Screw Jeongyeon and that paper ball.

A tiny part of her wonders if it was worth the fall to the floor instead of all of this because here she is, feeling like she’s falling anyway.

  1. ~~play it cool, IM NAYEON. play. it. cool.~~ ~~FAIL!~~ FAIL! (2)



“Do you…” Nayeon’s tongue is starting to feel thick, completely unaware of how she’s still holding onto Mina like her whole life depends on _this_ very moment. Like every fiber in her being isn’t about to crash and burn out any second now because 1) it feels like she’s holding onto something akin to the entire world and 2) Myoui Mina is _her_ entire world and 3) her knees might actually give in once and for all if Mina keeps looking at her like that. Wide-eyed and cute-faced. “… want some help picking up those papers? Or…”

“Or?” Mina raises a brow.

“Or…” Nayeon tries, attempting to swallow down the boulder that suddenly decides to build in her throat. Mina watches her curiously. Nayeon’s eyes are not on her own. Instead, they’re—

“Or… can I… can I kiss you?”

_Oh god. Am I going crazy? What did I just say? Im Nayeon, you crazy motherf—_

  1. ~~play it cool, IM NAYEON. play. it. cool.~~ ~~FAIL!~~ ~~FAIL! (2)~~ FAIL (3)



You know, it’d be great if the ground could just crumble beneath her right now. Or some random black hole could just manifest and take her away from this dimensional plane. There are more pros than cons to having a mouth that sometimes just won’t stop running, but this is just really not working out for her anymore. First, she tells Sana about her biggest ass crush on her best friend months ago _and_ now she asks Mina if she can kiss her? Maybe she should start voicing her thoughts _internally_.

Nayeon can only watch the way Mina blinks, clearly taken back, and her heart already cracks a little at the edges when she tries her hardest to start steeling for the worst. 

_Should I just run away? Lock myself in the bathroom? Oh! Maybe if I start crying, she’ll forget what I said?_

Nayeon’s heart then skips in tandem to the way the prettiest hue of pink fills Mina's cheeks and then she’s smiling so, so shyly, gummy and pretty and everything, and she says the one single thing that Nayeon couldn’t ever dream of imagining a million years from now. From Mina, directed right to her:

“Yeah.”

Oh?

“… Yeah,” Nayeon can’t help but to repeat after her absentmindedly, eyes focused on the way Mina starts worrying her front teeth down on her bottom lip. She blinks, once, twice— hold on, is she hearing this right? “Wait, yeah?"

“Yeah.”

_Oh._

Nothing on the HOW TO GET THE GIRL list has prepared her for this. Frankly, nothing on that damned list prepared her for _anything_ when it came to Mina, even if the sole reason for the list was, well, Mina!

Mina’s smile is still there, still very shy, and Nayeon really can’t help it when she returns one of her own, maybe a little wider and a hell lot goofier than Mina’s. Her cheeks are already aching. She swallows, blood rushing loud in her ears and heartbeat picking up nearly tenfold when she decides a little too quickly in the moment that _yeah, okay, I really want to kiss her so yeah, I’ll just—_

It’s anything but romantic — they’re in the middle of the hallway during study hall, for god’s sake — but hey, at least it’s perfect?

Nayeon’s forehead knocks against Mina’s awkwardly and a little too harshly, noses bumping in the process too. There’s less than a dozen centimeters between them and unsurprisingly, Nayeon already feels like drowning. The panic alarms are going off in her head, millions upon millions of questions flying through her mind and driving the mini Nayeons in her head absolutely mad: do I tilt my head _this_ way? _That_ way? What if I put my mouth in the wrong spot? What if—

There’s a hand that comes up to cup the back of her neck, and Nayeon can only blink three times straight, eyes then dropping to land on the cherry swell of Mina’s bottom lip. Her arms shake and Mina’s laugh is breathy. She smells like strawberries and Nayeon really, _really_ wants to kiss her.

Nayeon’s not sure where that sudden burst of last-second courage comes from but hey, it’s _something_. It’s something that makes her feel a little drunk with how easily she’s getting lost into everything that is Mina, something that’s driving her heart into places and speeds that shouldn’t be humanly possible but here they are.

So here’s how it goes:

She works in one last shaky grin and wait for it — _finally!_ — kisses Mina, like _really_ kisses her because Nayeon really can’t believe it just yet, and it feels like floating, flying, and falling all at once. It’s like her stomach fills with butterflies and drops to her feet the next moment, like fireworks going off at the back of her head and the sparks in her veins that everyone always talks about is _there —_ here, there, _everywhere —_ and everything is just… _right_.

It’s kind of the best feeling in the world.

It's a little like time stopping, like seconds just ceasing to continue on forth, and it’s just Nayeon, Mina, and _the_ moment. _The_ moment! Can you believe that? Everything’s starting to feel like a Nicholas Sparks’ book and Nayeon even forgets they’re in the middle of a shitty school hallway!

Mina kisses her exactly like how she is: warm, sweet, and holy shit, Nayeon didn’t even know people could be as soft as _this_. Mina kisses her like she wants her too, her and only her, and it makes Nayeon’s heart soar because she’s only ever wanted her, only ever wanted Mina right here and right now and now, here she is: right here and right now with THE girl. 

Nayeon’s not used to kissing people — her first kiss was with cootie-containing Park Jinyoung in the sixth grade and maybe Jeongyeon and her have drunkenly made out _once_ when they were fifteen and had gone through Jeongyeon’s dad’s fancy alcohol collection — so it’s a little too easy to be clumsy and forget to breathe. Instead of breathing through her nose, she stops to take in air, and it makes Mina laugh right up against her mouth.

Mina picks up where she leaves off, and Nayeon’s just… falling, falling, and falling. She doesn’t think she’ll ever want to stop falling.

It’s awesome.

-

“So why were you running down the hall anyway?” Mina asks, tugging Nayeon along by the hand as they make their way down to the teachers' office.

It’s not long after The Greatest Thing To Ever Happen In Nayeon’s Life™ that Nayeon suddenly regains all semblances of her sanity back and quickly realizes they’re still kind of standing in the middle of the hallway like total idiots. She’s surprised no one even walked by. She even takes a whole moment to act all scandalized about it, about how she was out here sharing her very first kiss with Mina in the middle of a fucking school hallway and not in the pouring rain in a field of flowers like she imagined! God. She can never win.

Eventually, Mina’s papers are picked up and stuffed back into the folder, with Nayeon turning something that should’ve been a ten-second task into a ten-minute one because she’s starting to get a little _too_ used to how Mina’s lips feel against hers.

“Oh!” She exclaims, remembering the poor paper ball that remained forgotten on the floor of the hallway. “Well, Jeongyeon and I were playing paper ball soccer…”

Mina gives her a disapproving look that makes Nayeon shrink just a little. “You were _what?_ ”

Nayeon can only grin sheepishly, footsteps coming to a halt when they reach the teachers’ office. “Oh, wow,” she says, changing the subject without a second thought, “look at that. We’re here already. Don’t want to keep Mr. Park waiting, right? Go on ahead. I’ll wait out here.”

Mina doesn’t say anything, only furrows her brow at her before letting go of her hand, much to Nayeon’s disappointment, and stepping into the teachers’ office. 

Nayeon leans against the wall and takes this time to recap:

For starters, she just kissed Mina. Secondly, she _kissed_ Mina. Thirdly, what the hell is she going to do now? This, as in Mina and her, should mean _something_ , right? Does Mina like her back? Like... are they a thing now? Or? Are they still friends? Friends who just happened to kiss ten minutes ago? Was it platonic? Romantic?

Did she follow all the steps on the HOW TO GET THE GIRL list? Did it work?

Did she even _get_ THE girl or did she _just_ kiss THE girl?

Did her breath stink? Were her lips chapped? Did Mina taste her lunch? 

Did Mina know about her crush on her this entire time? Does Mina remember that she still has her handkerchief—

“Nayeon?”

Nayeon blinks, then shakes her head vigorously to knock her mind back into place. Mina’s back, standing right in front of her, and head tilted in confusion in possibly the cutest way ever. Nayeon wants to kiss her again.

“Are you okay? You look distracted.”

“Yeah— yeah, I just—“ Nayeon says, trying her absolute hardest to keep her tongue in check before it runs off on its own and makes her say something she does _not_ want out in the air right now. There’s no way she’s going to ask Mina about the technicalities between them right now, not when they’re still in this goddamn hallway and in front of the teachers’ office no less. 

So:

“—I… uh, I think this is yours,” she manages to say instead. Almost immediately, she tugs the same handkerchief Mina had given to her the very first time they met or— well, crashed into each other, out of her blazer pocket. Still very baby blue and still very not used for the sole reason Mina had given it to her in the first place.

“Oh, wow,” Mina reaches over to take it from her gingerly, “I was starting to wonder how long it’d take before you’d give this back.”

Nayeon’s jaw drops a little. “What? You knew? You could’ve just said something!”

Mina’s laugh is soft and sounds like bell chimes and god, so, _so_ pretty. “It’s okay.” 

She dangles the small cloth square between them, eyes flicking back and forth from Nayeon and the handkerchief. Then, she moves and Nayeon watches her curiously, only for her brows to knit down in confusion seconds later.

“Mina? What are you doing?” 

“Nothing. Just putting this back where it belongs,” Mina merely says, moving to tuck the handkerchief back into Nayeon’s blazer pocket gently, the MM monogram peeking out just barely. 

The sudden action makes Nayeon's ears burn hot, cheeks feeling red already. Mina moves in close enough for their foreheads to touch and her smile? Blinding. Nayeon can’t help the beyond stupid one she sends back.

Mina's hand only smoothes out the portion of cloth that sticks out, along with the fabric of her blazer, fingers ghosting over the area right above her heart, and Nayeon only watches her carefully.

But then, it’s like the gears in her head click into place and the universe moves one more time and she _gets_ it.

It, being an analogy: 

Myoui Mina’s handkerchief tucked into Nayeon's blazer pocket: Myoui Mina’s name written across Nayeon’s heart.

Nayeon, always too busy worrying about other nonsense things, hadn’t noticed the way her heart had grew and grew and grew in order to house someone like Mina. Hadn’t noticed the way Mina had slowly and steadily made herself a huge constant in her little life, hadn’t noticed the way Mina had went from nothing to something to _everything_ without Nayeon even noticing.

Perhaps she had meant nothing by it, or perhaps she had meant everything by it. Regardless, Nayeon’s heart puffs up, bigger and bigger until it feels like it fills the entirety of her chest with something that’s starting to feel a little bit like love.

My heart has always been yours, Nayeon thinks, when Mina moves to nudge her forehead gently with her own. Her smile is bright and gummy, hand still over the pocket over Nayeon’s heart. She feels like falling again.

_Yours, yours, yours._

Oh.

Well, 

This _definitely_ means something.

-

It’s after school and they’re back in the library again, in the same corner that Nayeon keeps falling asleep in. Mina’s in the middle of doing homework. She should’ve been done perhaps a long time ago, but Nayeon just can’t keep her hands to herself anymore. She had only given up and sulked and started playing phone games when Mina told her to quit it for the third and final time. Mina’s shuffling through their messy pile of binders and papers and books when a small pink, folded piece of paper falls out from one of them.

“What’s this?”

Nayeon’s eyes lift from her phone for the briefest second, only to catch the sight of Mina with the HOW TO GET THE GIRL note in her hands. It’s possibly the scariest thing she’s seen in her entire life. (This, or when Jeongyeon took dressing up as No Face for Halloween to a whole other level). Almost immediately, the phone drops from her hands to the floor pathetically and her jaw drops with no Jeongyeon to close it this time. 

Nowhere on that damned list did it say Mina would be able to see it in the end, or ever in this lifetime. Nayeon even promptly forgot about it, really, when she was too busy trying to memorize the way Mina’s lips fit against her own, but whatever! She never was even planning to show her, but here they are: Mina fiddling with the list and seconds away from unfolding it entirely and reading possibly the most embarrassing thing Nayeon’s ever done in her life and Nayeon already wants the ground to swallow her whole right this instant.

“Wait!” she exclaims.

Mina already has the note completely unfolded. Her head tilts. “Hm?”

“That note...“ She trails off, watching the way Mina regards her curiously, tiny smile on her lips despite the fact that Nayeon’s resolve is already crumbling to nearly nothing from the mere _sight_ of Mina, and for just a moment, she’s lost in the way the most ironic juxtaposition to ever exist is right here, right in front of her eyes: Mina’s just… _there_ … sitting pretty with HOW TO GET THE GIRL list in her hands. Nayeon can only blink. Once, twice, and— “… is… uh, for you.”

_Well. There goes everything! Nice one, Nayeon. Screw you and your inability to say no or deny Mina of anything. You really gotta work on that, dude._

“Oh, is it?” Mina only says before her eyes drop down to the paper and Nayeon starts desperately counting the seconds it’ll take before some higher deity from above _finally_ answers her pleas and strikes her down with lightning. Or something that’ll have her gone from this dimensional plane. Anything!

“I had— I _have_ the biggest crush on you,” Nayeon says, embarrassed from hell and back but already quick to work on the damage control, “and I had absolutely no idea what to do, so I made Jeongyeon help me and… well, _that_ came out of it. It’s not anything… I just— I… I liked you so much and I was googling all this stuff, but Google sucks at giving advice and… and…”

Nayeon’s words are starting to get jumbled in her mouth and everything dies out on her tongue when she watches Mina. Watches the way her eyes are glued to the paper, the way the tiniest smile settles upon her face, only to grow more and more as the seconds pass by, the way everything she’s doing — sitting here, reading off Nayeon’s shameless agenda to uh, _get_ her with the prettiest smile upon her face — makes Nayeon’s heart shake dangerously anyway.

So much for damage control! Nayeon wants to cry. Mina’s probably only smiling because she thinks Nayeon’s a total creep now and the HOW TO GET THE GIRL list is the ultimate piece of evidence that can be used against her when Mina calls the cops on her sorry ass later and—

“Stop trying to revolve your whole life around her,” Mina pipes up after the longest while. Nayeon makes a sudden noise of embarrassment.

“I… I d-didn’t, I was j— I was just—“

“Become her friend. Get to know her,” Mina continues reading, ignoring Nayeon entirely.

“Well...” Nayeon’s smile is shaky at best, shoulders drooping just a bit, even as the girl of her dreams is currently reading off a list created for the sole purpose of… uh, _getting_ her. “… that one worked, didn’t it?”

Mina gives her a look that kind of says “did it?” and Nayeon’s smile turns sheepish.

“Play it cool, Im Nayeon,” Mina reads off with a laugh. 

“For the record,” Nayeon rubs the back of her neck shyly. “I tried really, really hard at that step.”

Mina only rolls her eyes, though the brightest smile Nayeon’s ever seen from her sits clear across her face. She continues on. “Im Nayeon, you can do it.”

“It was kind of like a morale booster? It actually really helpe—“

Without another word, Mina only shakes her head and then moves to grab a pen from her pencil bag. She turns so Nayeon can’t see what she’s doing, despite the girl’s whining, and starts scribbling something on the paper. Nayeon tries to sneak a peek from behind, but Mina’s quick to nudge her away, even as Nayeon tries to tuck her chin over her shoulder _and_ snake her arms around her waist in an attempt to pull her flush against her front. It’s a very heart-skipping move, and it does its job in doing so, but Mina’s got more important things at hand. Even if her heart’s currently running laps in her chest and she wants to do nothing but melt in Nayeon’s arms.

“You were missing something, so I fixed it for you,” Mina merely says, like she doesn’t mean anything by it whatsoever. Nayeon sees through it immediately with a small laugh.

Nayeon moves her arm to pluck the note out of her hands, bringing it up to read it over Mina’s shoulder.

She’s silent for the longest minute and Mina’s starting to think she might’ve done something wrong — maybe she shouldn’t have gone and messed with Nayeon’s list — but the next moment, Nayeon’s head is dropped to press her face into the back of her shoulder and she’s shaking and Mina can literally _feel_ the smile Nayeon presses against her back.

“Play it cool,” she can hear Nayeon mumble against the fabric of her uniform, “Play it cool, Im Nayeon.”

Mina only laughs, pretty and soft. Nayeon pulls her closer, face dug against Mina’s back, and the tiny piece of paper clutched tight in her hand. She wonders if Mina can feel her heartbeat racing underneath her skin. There’s no way she can’t, not when it feels like her heart’s two seconds away from shooting out of her chest and running off to the one thing its ever known these days — Myoui Mina!

At the bottom of the paper, right under Jeongyeon’s sloppy handwriting, Mina writes in purple pen. Five words, handwriting nothing but pretty and neat and heart-stopping and totally Mina-like. It should mean nothing — really, it’s just five words on a crinkled piece of Hello Kitty paper — but the thing is, it means _everything:_

  1. Im Nayeon, you did it :)



-

  1. ~~GET THE GIRL!!~~ CHECK!



**Author's Note:**

> finished this in a span of 3 days, so that's pretty cool... though i think i was writing purely due to stress and a serious lack of sleep but hey! at least we got a fic out of it lol
> 
> nothing i'm particularly proud of since i don't think i'm the best at pure fluff zzzz  
> this might be my worst fic yet, but it's just me reiterating the fact over and over again that i'm in love with writing about nayeon being so so so so helplessly in love with mina like nobody's business
> 
> personally feel that i'm incapable of writing anything less than 10k anymore so there's that... :(
> 
> minayeon kinda angsty so i think we all needed this <3
> 
> thanks for reading!!!
> 
> twt: @pikatzus


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